HIstory - russia Flashcards
Bloody Sunday - two features
One feature of the Bloody Sunday protests is that it aimed to bring a petition to the Tsar signed by 150,000 people petitioning for 8 hour working days, rights to organize trade unions, a constitution to guarantee these rights, and other laws regarding personal freedom. This petition was popularised as many workers, peasants, and most of those who weren’t apart of the upper-class aristocracy were suffering and overworked, there were horrible working conditions and they were not getting fairly compensated with money, meaning they would have hunger problems. Moreover, the general public had little to no say in what was happening in Russia, and the authoritarian Tsarist regime had all the power.
Another feature was that the protestors were massacred by the soldiers surrounding the palace. The soldiers charged at the protestors with whips and swords and later even openly fired at them. Whilst the protest was overall peaceful, some protestors began insulting the soldiers and criticized their failures in the Manchuria attack. This likely antagonized the soldiers and led them to attack, but more importantly, the military swore fielty to the Tsar and would have to do their bidding and protect them from the protests
Potemkin mutiny
Quartermaster and other sailors attacked the executive officer after the sailors (mutineers) after one of the sailors was shot for disobeying orders. The sailors were under very harsh and horrible conditions, food was scarce or was unhygienic and many caught diseases but were forced to comply with the executive’s officers’ orders to endure the food and other conditions. Moreover many of the sailors, importantly the quartermaster learnt about socialism and was also angered by the amount of authority the upper class had (the executive officer)
After the mutiny, the mutineers sailed to the port of Odesa in order to gain support and mount a revolution to thwart the power of the Tsar. Prior to the mutiny, many strikes and protests were already taking place opposing the Tsar in Odessa, when the mutineers arrived there were even more demonstrations in support of the mutineers and many attended the funerals of sailors who were killed by their officers.
1905 revolution
Somewhat led by the st Petersburg soviet. A group and council of workers who planned demonstrations and strikes. It established a sense of unity and organization and was led by Leon Trotsky which would bring precedent for future revolutions. The sense of unity and organization was scarcely seen before and was a reason why prior opposition against the Tsar had little success. THe St. Petersburg Soviet rectified this problem slightly and made the revolution much more effective then it should’ve been.
Peasants in the countryside rioted against their landlords and seized the land that they had owned. Many of the lands were worked on by the peasants themselves or the generation of peasants before them as serfs and were yielded little to no payment or compensation for doing so. The landlords had all the power and usually made the peasants live and work in harsh conditions, monopolizing the power and the riches that came of the land to themselves.
The October manifesto
Civil rights - freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to form political parties, and the right to form trade unions. The Tsar regime was authoritarian and did not push for political pluralism. Speech and religion were also suppressed by the police, Russia was a police state
Duma - a parliament set up with representatives elected in a general election. Laws would have to be approved by state Duma. and government actions would be monitored by the elected representatives of poeple. People previously had no say in the governance of russia… Democracy (elected represnetatives)
Stolypin policy of repression
Military given complete control over law and order in almost every part of the country. Potency of the militaria and the police increased even more, manifesting Russia as a police state. Military went to different areas of the country side now with the authority, used extreme violence to stop the riots and rounded up any peasants or others who opposed the Tsar.
Special army courts were used to tried anyone suspected of opposing the Tsar or causing trouble. Special army courts dismissed lawyers and the accused would not go through the ordinary legal procedures and would not have a lawyer they could use to defend themselves. Therefore many people were imprisoned and executed by the courts sometimes unjustly without a lawyer or a person who could defend them.
Dumas
-Matched by upper state council that could block anything passed by the duma. The upper state council was half elected by the Tsars and would vote any way the tsar wanted them to
Tsar kept hold of their important powers, he could dissolve duma at any time and had the right to veto any duma legislation. Moreover, even when the duma was not in operation, the tsar would have the ability to pass any law he thought was necessary under one of the fundamental laws
First world war: economic effects
17 billion rubles spent on the war 15 times as much as it had spent on the Russo Japanese war. More money printed - inflation
Over 15 million men sent to fight in war . Not enough labor for the factories or the fields. 500 factories had to close as a result
First world war: social effects
People in Russia especially those who were poor were running out of food and were starving. Railway system that transported food rations prioritized transporting food to the military instead of the citizens
Russia lost a lot of men of working age. There were more woman then men in Russia and many factories became empty and had to close due to the lack of a workforce.
First world war: political effects
Fourth duma suspended in August of 1914 to allow government to concentrate on winning the war
February revolutions
A quarter of a million people came on to the streets of Petrograd to March due to the announcement of food rations. The announcement of food rations came after a brutal winter of food shortages, and many were staving and desperate pushing them to join the protests in opposition against the government.
Nicholas ordered soldiers to enter Petrograd to end the unrest. Nicholas II was not in the capital to take charge of the situation and relied on reports to inform him of waht was happneing, in which he decided to take action. The police killed 50 people.
Army mutiny
The Pavlovsky soldiers refused to obey orders to fire on demonstrators after hearing that the Russian soldiers were firing on demonstrators.
Workers and soldiers worked together to capture Petrograd’s main weapons store. They managed to steal many weapons and released many political prisoners.
The June offensive
The offensive ended in disaster, Russian front collapsed, showed that the military could not follow orders effectively and fight effectively. The provisional government had initiated the offensive but the militaria was not completely controlled by them and the Petrograd soviet had the most say in military matters, moreover some Soldiers were still keen on rebelling as the Provisional government was not democratically elected and was just made up of deputies from the previous duma.
The June offensive was initiated by Alexander Kerensky who in may of 1917 was appointed minister of war. Kerensky was previously a member of teh Duma. He believed that laucnhing a major offensive and achieving victory against the Austrians and the Germans would win support for the provisional government.
April theses
One of the features of the April Theses was a campaign to draw Russia out of World War 1. The provisional government had just launched an offensive to push back the Austrians and the Germans (June offensive) which ended in utter disaster. Lenin believed that the war was simply a conflict between greedy capitalists which offered nothing other than death and suffering to the proletariats
Another feature was a proposal to cut all ties and end cooperation with the provisional government and any other parties that were supporting the provisional government such as the Mensheviks. The provisional government were a group of statesmen who previously were a part of the Duma, they were never democratically elected by the people of Russia.
Slogans: “Peace, Land and Bread” “All power to the soviets”
The July days
One of the features of the July days was that it was initially anarchist revolutionaries who persuaded soldiers to join an anti-government demonstration, Lenin and the Bolsheviks initially disagreed with this motion but later decided to join in as they thought it was the right moment and that they could overthrow the provisional government in the same way the February revolution ended the Tsarist regime.
Another feature of the July days was that the Petrograd soviet and other parties in the soviet such as the Mensheviks did not support the demonstration and were distrustful of the Bolsheviks, and decided to cooperate with the provisional government in suppressing the uprising and arresting key figures within the Bolshevik party e.g. trotsky.,
The Kornilov revolt
One feature of the Kornilov revolt was that Kornilov sent troops to Petrograd to shut down the Petrograd soviet in spite of being dismissed as commander in chief. and restore order to the city. Kornilov wanted Kerensky to invoke martial law and shut down the Petrograd soviet, Kerensky disagreed and saw this as a challenge to his leadership and dismissed him as commander in chief
Another feature was that the Bolsheviks were given permission by the provisional government to arm workers in Petrograd and other soldiers. Kerensky feared that Kornilov was going to take control and power of the military, as a result, he allowed the Bolsheviks to arm the people of Petrograd in order to defend the city and push back Kornilov and his troops.
